When I first came across the famous xkcd page, I had never seen the term before, so I pronounced it "sue-doe." When I found out it stands for "super user do," I assumed it shoud be pronounced "sue-doo," and have used that pronuncation ever since.

Recently, I've been looking up Linux stuff on Youtube and most people pronounce it "sue-doe." I still prefer to say "sue-doo."

So what do you think is the "right" way to pronounce it, and how do you pronounce it?

(Read the poll responses carefully. Sue-doe and sue-doo look very similar, make sure you vote for the right one.)

I have signitures disabled. If you do, too...you can't read this, so nevermind >_>

It's clearly sue-doo. You want to use the powers you would have with the Switch User ("su") command (which defaults to root), to DO one thing. sudo. I've never heard anybody pronounce it sue-doe outside of arguments about how it should be pronounced, and I can't imagine any justification for pronouncing it that way.

I say "su-doe". I sorta feel like it really should be "su-doo" but I say the word out loud so rarely that I don't feel like trying to change my prounciation for the occasions where I do. Like the OP, I heard about sudo long before I learned its etymology (quite possibly from that xkcd comic, though I'm not sure).

scarecrovv wrote:I can't imagine any justification for pronouncing it that way.

The fact that it's written that way?

sudo

su do

We agree on how the first part is pronounced. The disagreement is over the second part. Are you trying to tell me that you say "You must doe your taxes by April 15" rather than "You must doo your taxes by April 15"?

Pseudo is pronounced sue-doe - if you are looking for consistency in the English language, give up. Sumo is another example; I'm sure you can come up with more but, that said in this case it's pronounced like do in undo and redo.

I've half trained myself to say it correctly, but usually slip up. I think I might actually have been introduced to it as "super-user" (instead of the proper switch user) "do" , but it's hard to convince myself that it's a compound and not just some loan word with typical Romance language orthography.

So much depends upon a red wheel barrow (>= XXII) but it is not going to be installed.

Three Points in Favor of the Sue-Doo Pronunciation1) Sue-doe sounds like the word "pseudo." When speaking aloud, you may confuse newcomers to *nix. You say "type sudo ls /usr/local/protected" and they hear "type pseudo ls [...]" and may even type 'pseudo.' With the sue-doo pronunciation, there is no ambiguity. They might not know what it means or how to spell it, but since it doesn't sound like any other word, they wouldn't think you said something else.

2) In *nix and programming in general, "do" is pronounced as expected -- "doo." And you would certainly learn "do" before you learn "sudo." There's no logical reason the pronunciation of "do" should change with a prefix. Indeed, I submit that the "pseudo" pronunciation originates from those who came across the term "sudo" without knowing its meaning or the "do" command in the first place. It's "switch user and do," not "switch user and dough." Similar to how "gif" is properly pronounced with a hard 'g' because "graphics" is pronounced with a hard 'g.' It's "graphics interchange format," not "jraffics interchange format."

3) Consider the /etc/sudoers file. "Sue-doe-ers" sounds awkward; "doe-ers" sounds like someone with a thick Southern U.S. accent saying "doors." By contrast, "sue-doo-ers" flows much more easily off the tongue, and as with point 2, keeps with the pronunciation of the root word "do."

3b) Imagine if there was such a term as "sudoing." Surely "sue-doo-ing" makes more sense, using the actual word "doing," rather than "sue-doe-ing," which again has a more awkward pronunciation.

I have signitures disabled. If you do, too...you can't read this, so nevermind >_>

King Author wrote:1) Sue-doe sounds like the word "pseudo." When speaking aloud, you may confuse newcomers to *nix. You say "type sudo ls /usr/local/protected" and they hear "type pseudo ls [...]" and may even type 'pseudo.' With the sue-doo pronunciation, there is no ambiguity. They might not know what it means or how to spell it, but since it doesn't sound like any other word, they wouldn't think you said something else.

So then they'll get "pseudo: command not found" and ask about it. Doesn't seem like a big deal.

(At least going by the customized error message that outputs the package name uninstalled commands are provided by, Ubuntu doesn't know about any packages providing a "pseudo" command, so the chance there would be one hanging around is pretty remote.)

And you would certainly learn "do" before you learn "sudo."

What do you mean by this? Because I don't really believe any interpretation that makes sense. If you mean literally the "do" command, then no... even a typical Linux user is pretty likely to encounter "sudo", if only to install things. (How often do you see instructions online to "run 'sudo apt-get install foo'" vs instructions to use a GUI package installer? Indeed, being able to precisely communicate what to do easily is one of the strengths of the CLI.) Not many people will use a do loop.

If you mean you'd learn to run "foo" before "sudo foo" for any particular foo, then no, you won't do that either because for 99% of the things you use sudo for, you're using sudo because you can't not use sudo. That is, you can't learn to run "foo" before "sudo foo" because "foo" doesn't work.

3) Consider the /etc/sudoers file. "Sue-doe-ers" sounds awkward; "doe-ers" sounds like someone with a thick Southern U.S. accent saying "doors." By contrast, "sue-doo-ers" flows much more easily off the tongue, and as with point 2, keeps with the pronunciation of the root word "do."

3b) Imagine if there was such a term as "sudoing." Surely "sue-doo-ing" makes more sense, using the actual word "doing," rather than "sue-doe-ing," which again has a more awkward pronunciation.

I don't agree with either of those. If anything, I think it argues against you. Because to the extent that "sue-doo-ing" sounds more natural than "sue-doe-ing", it's because it sounds like "su(doing)" whereas "(sudo)ing" is how it should sound. Same with s/ing/ers/. At least IMO.

I'm a sue-doe person, and I think that's what most people I know pronounce it... but I think an analogy to "undo" or "redo" is kind of convincing.

King Author wrote:Similar to how "gif" is properly pronounced with a hard 'g' because "graphics" is pronounced with a hard 'g.' It's "graphics interchange format," not "jraffics interchange format."

Like how "laser" is pronounced like "lace-er", because the "s" stands for "stimulated"?

In any case, yes, logically it "should" be pronounced the same as the verb "do" in the pattern of undo, redo, outdo, ado, and to-do (and any other thing-plus-the-verb-'do' words that I'm forgetting). Unfortunately natural language in general, and English pronunciation in particular, cares little for your petty notions of "logic". And literally every other word in the English language that ends with the letters "-do" is pronounced to rhyme with "doe".

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chasesan wrote:I pronounce it sue-doe, because that's how I have always pronounced it, and I am not going to change the way I pronounce it just because someone dislikes the way I pronounce it. Have a nice day.

Yeah, but that argument could literally be used for any pronunciation you picked for anything at all, no matter how wrong or nonsensical.

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chasesan wrote:I pronounce it sue-doe, because that's how I have always pronounced it, and I am not going to change the way I pronounce it just because someone dislikes the way I pronounce it. Have a nice day.

Yeah, but that argument could literally be used for any pronunciation you picked for anything at all, no matter how wrong or nonsensical.

Yeah, but this is a war. We're not here to discuss and reach an agreement, right?

su doesn't stand for "switch user". It stands for "superuser" (although some people claim it stands for "substitute user").

If you look at man pages, they'll usually say something like "change user ID or become superuser" or else something about "substitute user". The "substitute user" thing seems to be a later reinterpretation (probably because some people were distressed that its name was no longer fully general).

LINFO claims "substitute user" and specifically asserts that "superuser" is incorrect, but gives no justification.

However, The UNIX acronym list says "superuser" and does give evidence, which is hard to dispute: the source for su.c from UNIX v6, where the command allowed the user to become superuser only, and the function was introduced as /* su -- become super-user */.

And this is the justification for why "sue-doo" is not more correct, and you should simply pronounce it "pseudo", because that's what seems natural.

I don't think "sue-doe" sounds more natural. Okay, I guess it does as an isolated word... but once you stick at the front of a command, "su do" sounds more natural to me. It has a nice imperative sound to it.

Incidentally, I'm not sure "pseudo" works very well to describe a pronunciation, since it has at least two of its own. (I'm fairly sure people mean the version without the semivowel between s and eu, but still.)

troyp wrote:su doesn't stand for "switch user". It stands for "superuser" (although some people claim it stands for "substitute user").

Fair enough. The key point is that it should be treated as two letters, like AD, BC, PS, etc., and not as an acronym to be pronounced, like SOPA or WENIS. You wouldn't say "the year 3000 buh-k" (unless you're Fonejacker), and thus neither should you say "sue doo".

troyp wrote:I don't think "sue-doe" sounds more natural. Okay, I guess it does as an isolated word... but once you stick at the front of a command, "su do" sounds more natural to me. It has a nice imperative sound to it.

"Sue-doo" doesn't roll off my tongue like "pseudo". The double stress is really bothersome to me.

troyp wrote:Incidentally, I'm not sure "pseudo" works very well to describe a pronunciation, since it has at least two of its own. (I'm fairly sure people mean the version without the semivowel between s and eu, but still.)

Either is acceptable - if you like diphthongs then put an extra one in there. I used "pseudo" precisely to describe "pseudo", whichever English pronunciation you use. Personally I prefer it with just the one - on the O.

eviloatmeal wrote:The key point is that it should be treated as two letters, like AD, BC, PS, etc., and not as an acronym to be pronounced, like SOPA or WENIS.

Why? You haven't argued this point, you've just asserted it.

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eviloatmeal wrote:The key point is that it should be treated as two letters, like AD, BC, PS, etc., and not as an acronym to be pronounced, like SOPA or WENIS.

Why? You haven't argued this point, you've just asserted it.

I was simply saying that this is the key point of my opinion - that "su", like "vi", should be treated as two letters, and not as a word. As a result of that, I feel it doesn't make more sense to pronounce it "sue doo". If "sue doo" is no more "correct" than any other pronunciation, then we might as well use the one that is most convenient, and I think that "pseudo", "sumo", and so on are more similar to "sudo" than "voodoo", "doo-doo", "do do" (the opposite of "don't do") etc..

Of course, one is welcome to lug around the heavy, cumbersome "ess-you-doo", if one should prefer*. The argument I am making is between the two choices in the poll.

*

Spoiler:

If a person says "ess-you-doo", I'm taking that person back to the place with the padded walls.

eviloatmeal wrote:Of course, you're welcome to lug around the heavy, cumbersome "ess-you-doo", if you prefer*. I'm just arguing for my preference out of the choices in the poll.

Huh? You were the only one to suggest "ess-you-doo".

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I still don't see how your correctness claim, that pronouncing s and u separately is somehow more pedantically correct or whatever, makes any sense.

Do you similarly argue that "radar" is more convenient but "ray-dee-ay-are" is more correct somehow?

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gmalivuk wrote:Do you similarly argue that "radar" is most correct as "ray-dee-ay-are"?

No, that one's an acronym.

I don't have any evidence for the idea that the U in "su" is the first letter of the word "user", as opposed to the letter following the S, but that's my intuition, and that's what I base my beliefs on. If you can find some evidence to the contrary (similar to Steve Wilhite and his "giraffics interchange format" ), then I'll concede that I'm wrong, and that I'm purely pronouncing it the way that feels natural to me, and will also mock whoever came up with a name for a command that rhymes with "doodoo".